In his ‘Treatise’, Hume targets rationalism and is most noted for saying that ‘reason is the slave of the passions’ and challenging the thought held that morality is discovered by the use of reason. Hume is an empiricist, and his ideas about the passions are said to have influenced Kant in his rationalist argument for [...]

Filed under: English, Philosophy on May 23rd, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Kant is known for his work the ‘The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’ (or just the ‘Groundwork’) and his Categorical Imperative (CI). He sets out by analysing our general ideas and presuppositions of morality with the aim of showing that the foundations of morality are based on autonomous reason. Moreover, he thinks that we [...]

Filed under: English, Philosophy on May 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics focus on the virtues (aretê) or ‘excellences of character’ and as such he is known as a virtue theorist. He emphasises the importance of ethics as a practical discipline rather than a theoretical one and as such he is interested in finding out the things we need to live well and how [...]

Filed under: English, Philosophy on May 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

I’ll be writing about the various main strands of Moral Philosophy over the coming days as a form of revision. I’ll be looking at Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Mill and their respective philosophies to do with ethics and morality. I may not be able to get through each of the 4 prominent philosophers due to [...]

Filed under: English, Philosophy on May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

Who are the philosophers you would no doubt read if only you had the time? How about the philosophers you suspect that everyone has pretended to read, but whom very few have? If you’ve ever thought there’s just too much reading in philosophy, you’ll be pleased to know there’s only one essential philosopher to read.
Take [...]

Filed under: English, Philosophy on February 7th, 2008 | No Comments »